Guard rail fence



Nov. 8, 1966 H.511 PIERRE 3,284,054

GUARD RAIL FENCE Filed April 15, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 MW Henry J2. Parr'e Nov. 8, 1966 H. s'r. PIERRE 3,284,054

GUARD RAIL FENCE Filed April 15, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 W /o jgw 2/ ii? 7 56 1a United States Patent 3,284,054 GUARD RAIL FENCE Henry St. Pierre, 50 Frank St., Worcester, Mass. Filed Apr. 15, 1964, Ser. No. 359,848 1 Claim. (Cl. 256-13.1)

This invention relates to a new and improved guard rail fence, and the principal object of the invention resides in the provision of a device of this nature which is expansible and acts as though it were resilient when struck by a vehicle so as to cushion the shock of the vehicle, thus saving property and lives. The construction is one which will give when struck and usually does not become completely disrupted as it is not rigid, so that it gradually but quickly slows down the vehicle striking it.

Another object of the invention resides in the provision of a guard rail fence of the class described which in most cases will not be broken or disrupted and which can be put back into operating condition easily and quickly either by merely rearranging the parts into normal condition or by substituting a few new parts for those which may be damaged beyond repair.

A further object of the invention resides in the provision of a W plate guard rail fence in which the individual plates are mounted between posts which extend upwardly from the ground level and incline toward the highway at their upper ends, these ends supporting pivoted struts which carry the W plates, the W plates being interconnected in such a way as to allow the entire fencing to expand in a longitudinal manner when struck, the pivoted struts being provided with means resisting inward deflection thereof but allowing this deflection under impact.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in elevation illustrating the invention, parts being broken away;

FIG. 2 is a section on an enlarged scale on line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a still further enlarged view in elevation, looking in the direction of arrow 3 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a plan view illustrating the action of the supporting post when the fence is struck by a vehicle;

FIG. 5 is a view in side elevation illustrating the action of the new fence when struck by a vehicle;

FIGS. 6 and 7 show the action of the annealed chain which forms a part of the invention, and

FIG. 8 is a view partly in section and with parts broken away, showing a modification.

The novel fencing is arranged to be supported on posts which can comprise pipes or rods generally indicated at 10 which are spaced along the roadside. These posts are provided with generally straight ends 12 which are sunk in the ground and can be if desired mounted in cement. However, it is preferred that they be mounted in the ground and provided with cross pins or the like 14 which tend to resist turning motion. The posts at their upper ends are bent as at 16 to extend forwardly towards the highway, so that the posts are offset from the highway.

At their outer ends 17 there is provided for each post an upright strut generally indicated at 18. This strut may be in the form of a channel-iron or the like and it is mounted at the end of the post by means of a bolt or other fastener indicated at 20. This bolt extends through the two side flanges 22 of the post 18 and can be tightened to the degree desired so as to resist bending or pivoting on the axis of the bolt 20. It is to be observed that the major portion of the strut 18 depends below the top end of the post as clearly shown in FIG. 2.

Welded or otherwise secured to the strut 18 there is provided a U-shaped bracket generally indicated at 24. This bracket is provided with a pair of legs 26 which are in turn provided with arcuate slots 28 through which a bolt 30 extends. The bolt 30 can be tightened to slow the swinging of the strut 18 and bracket 24 as for instance from the FIG. 2 normal position to the FIG. 5 indented position where it has been struck by a vehicle and thus take up some of the shock. The point is that these bolts help to create friction to slow down the vehicle when it hits the lower part of the strut, but it does not prevent such turning action completely.

There is a strut 18 for each post 10 as seen in FIG. 1 and on these posts there are mounted short W-shaped plates indicated at 32. These plates are held by a bolt or the like as shown in FIG. 2 and are slotted as shown at 34. Elongated W plates are mounted by means of bolts 38, 38 with respect to the slots 34, 34, and again these bolts are tightened just enough to provide enough friction so that the elongated W plates 36 under impact will slide with respect to plates 32, thus expanding between posts. This again adds to the resilient nature of the fence to cushion the blow or shock of the vehicle striking the same.

In addition a chain 40 of annealed links can be strung in staples 42 arranged on the posts or struts and as indicated in FIGS. 6 and 7 the links of this chain will stretch under impact adding to the general yielding nature of the entire construction. However the chain 40 could be replaced by a stranded steel cable if desired.

It will be seen that this construction provides a resilient guard rail or fence which when struck by a vehicle will resist but yield and will not in most cases become too greatly damaged to be repaired. Looking at FIG. 4 where the lines 44- indicate a vehicle striking the same, the W plates 36 will tend to bend inwardly, being stretched somewhat from the next adjacent plate by sliding on plate 32. At the same time the'strut 18 will tend to be swung inwardly (see FIG. 5) against the action of the friction bolts at 20 and 30. Also the posts 10 themselves will tend to swing away from the impact (see FIG. 4), and the fastener or cross piece 14 (see FIG. 1) will resist this action also but still the swinging action will ordinarily be accomplished.

In FIG. 8 there is shown a modification of the invention in which there is no actual pivot provided. The

standard is the same as before and is therefore indicated at 10. In this standard there is mounted by any means desired an angle bracket indicated at 50. This angle bracket has an arm which is secured to the pipe in any way desired as indicated by the bolt at 52 and the other arm of the bracket 50 is secured to the strut 54 which is similar to that at 18. The pipe can then be filled with cement if desired. Otherwise the constructions are the same. The bracket 50 will be provided with a predetermined bending limit less than that of the pipe 10 so that when the strut 54 is struck the bracket 50 and strut will pivot inwardly in a counterclockwise direction, see FIG. 8, prior to bending of the post 10.

In either embodiment of the invention however the strut either 18 or 54 will tend to bend in and contact the upright part of the post 10 becoming more or less locked with relation to it prior to any bending action on the part of the post. Such bending action on the part of the post will ordinarily take place substantially at ground level.

Thus it will be seen that the fencing itself will be very little damaged even at a heavy impact, the vehicle will be damaged by the impact just as small an amount as it possible and the fence can soon be placed in original condition merely by replacing any parts of it that may have been damaged beyond repair of straightening out parts which are bent and turning the post and the struts 22 back into their original condition.

Having thus described my invention and the advantages thereof, I do not wish to be limited to the details herein disclosed, otherwise than as set forth in the claim, but what I claim is:

A guard rail construction comprising a series of posts, each post including a member comprising an upright portion having its lower end disposed in the ground and an upper end portion projecting laterally from the upright portion, a generally channel-shaped strut for each post pivotally secured adajacent an end thereof to the free end of the laterally extending portion of each post and depending therefrom in general parallelism with the upright portion of each post and being swingable with respect thereto, means for resisting said swinging action, said means comprising a pair of plates secured to the strut at opposite sides of each post, each plate having an arcuate slot, frictional connecting means extending through the slots at a point below the laterally extending portion of each post in substantial contact therewith, a short horizontally extending plate secured to each strut, an elongated plate secured at its ends in overlapping sliding engagement with the two adjacent ends of the pair of short plates on adjacent posts, and frictional means connecting the elongated plates to the short plates, said frictional means resisting sliding motion of the elongated plates relative to the short plates, whereby the guard rail is extensible under impact and said channel members are swingable inwardly toward said posts under impact.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,267,458 5/1918 Sager 293100 1,505,900 8/1924 Kolb et a1 293 1,583,504 5/1926 Starck 293 1,612,301 12/1926 Martin 293100 1,658,118 2/1928 Doddridge 25613.1 1,718,875 -6/ 1929 Ramsey 25613.1 1,745,742 2/ 1930 Crotto 59-90 2,101,176 12/1937 Height 256-131 2,123,167 7/1928 Cain 256 13.1 2,168,930 8/1939 Bradshaw 25613.1 2,317,248 4/ 1943 Brickman 25613.1 2,942,853 6/ 1960 Glaros 25613.1 3,077,339 2/ 1963 White 25613.1

HARRISON R. MOSELEY, Primary Examiner.

REINALDO P. MACHADO, Examiner.

D. L. TAYLOR, Assistant Examiner. 

